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RASHAMONTASHEN

I.

I was at the city center when the word came down from Shushan Castle: Ahashueres fired Vashti; he needed a replacement and auditions would begin at once. Virgins were required to report for duty to his chamberlain. This struck me as an opportunity that we could ill afford to miss. Our people lived in exile, and having access to the king was better than insurance to us. I had heard too many stories of our misplaced trust in allies - friends forget you every time the seasons change. We Jews had to rely upon ourselves for our security. If one of us was queen, I thought, we’d be in decent shape. I told my ward, Hadassah, to prepare herself, and took her to the palace precincts. There I gave her one last piece of critical advice: tell no one what she was or who we were. To help her hide her heritage, I changed her name to Esther on the spot. I feared reprisals somewhere down the line, for her or maybe for us all. I thought it prudent to protect the girl’s identity - keep this ace down in the hole.

Hadassah underwent their ritual of purity while I tried to keep tabs on her. It took a year before the women were considered clean enough to dally with Ahashueres. He’d have his way with them and then he’d never ask them back. But my Hadassah - she was something special. I’d known that before I’d sent her. The King got more than he’d expected, and in his breathless gratitude, he offered her the crown. He had fallen for her hard. I guess I’d raised her pretty well. What’s more, my plan was working perfectly.

Years went by without a message from Hadassah. Then one day a couple of the royal guards committed indiscretions close enough for me to hear them. These bruisers, who called themselves Bigthan and Teresh, were all out of sorts about some palace intrigue, and started planning to attack Hadassah and her loving husband. I kept still until they’d passed, then found a castle minion who could get a message into court. I wanted to make sure Hadassah knew about these crazy bastards. I could tell the guy I picked got through because, the next day at the castle gate, I saw two beaten corpses dangling in nooses strung from battlements. Everybody looked at them, those loudmouth brutes who’d terrorized us all, defenseless and unthreatening, so utterly defeated no one even threw a stone at them.

Nine years passed. A man named Haman Agagite had risen to become Ahashueres’ minister in chief, a mercenary, misanthropic scoundrel, with ten prognathic sons who brandished daddy’s influence like truncheons. Haman got Ahashueres to ordain that nobles had to bow to him at court. Then, like a peacock, he would strut through crowded city streets expecting everyone to drop their business and abase themselves as he went past. When he came near to me I could not stomach his conceit and simply stood there. This enraged him. My colleagues huddled up behind me, looking to me in alarm to measure my response. They knew this was no petty beef - this was how bad times could start for everybody. The question in their dark, quick eyes put me to shame. I could not let them lay their necks beneath the heel of the Agagite. We had a holy covenant. I would not cater to him.

Haman was infuriated. “How dare you stand there! Princes bow before me! Insolent self-righteous swine!” I replied: concerning insolence, he was too besmirched to comment; as for my righteousness, my modesty precluded me from thanking him; however, I was Jewish, and the kashrut laws excluded all my people from the porcine category. Everybody found my answer most amusing. Haman looked as if he was about to smack me - then he backed away and spluttered that I’d live to rue my fate. He ran into the palace to complain about me. I thought that I had won, but now I think I may have been mistaken.

Just a few days later a new proclamation was announced, betraying clearly Haman’s hateful hand. It lifted all the penalties for killing Jews for one black day: the thirteenth day of Adar. Young and old, the weak and women, all our homes and things of value would be given as a spoil to anyone who killed the owners. My little joke had brought us to the edge of ruin. All because I would not bow to someone far below contempt. What I had done - refused to do - would devastate not just myself alone, but all my family, my people. Haman’s revenge was so crude and excessive at first I could not comprehend it. But I soon learned the edict had been generally published, and I researched all the terms of the negotiations leading to enactment - the king had been bought off to give his vile minister free reign. Now Haman had ordained extinction just to spite me. I put on ash and sackcloth and began my mourning for a world about to be destroyed.

Hadassah somehow heard of this and sent me out some nicer clothes, but I returned them to her. Finery was not for me; I sat a shiva for my brothers who so shortly would be put to sword. It looked like none of us would be alive to do it right once Haman had his way. Hadassah sent a chamberlain to ask me what was going on. I told him everything: the edict that all Jews be killed, the mere ten thousand silver talents Haman paid to foot the bill; I even found for him a copy of the bloody orders. When I sent him back to her, I told him, “She must go before Ahashueres. Every secret must in time be told.” He left, but shortly afterward returned to me and said, “She’s scared to death. She’s saying he can have her killed if she approaches him without an invitation, and he’s not called for her in thirty days. She doesn?t know when she will see him next.” I told the chamberlain, “Tell her, ‘You’ll die regardless, visit him or not. Your crown won?t save your neck. If you maintain your silence, I’m confident that somehow we will overcome this holocaust; but as for you, you will not live to see it. Uncle Abihail’s line will die with you if you don’t take this to your husband. Anyway, I had you placed at court for just this kind of crisis. Who are you to say that you reject your part? Your heritage, our future, cry to you to honor and redeem them. Forsake your anonymity before you find the cat’s out of the bag already. For the rest, accept your fate!”

A few days later Haman came up to me at the castle gate with undisguised disgust. He said to me, “Your time is up. I’ll stretch your haughty neck myself. Can’t you see my lovely tower? I’ll give you a guided tour later on today!” I looked where he was pointing. A gibbet loomed above his home, so tall that I could see it where I stood. “When next we meet I’ll have a writ to kill you. See you soon!” He strode inside the castle, laughing. Gates slammed shut behind him and I turned my thoughts again to all that lay ahead - my execution, then the looting of our households and the desolation, rape, extermination Haman promised to unleash. Now my time was nearly over. I would not live to help my people overcome this madman’s curse.

Haman came out from the castle soon thereafter, pale and unsteady. He stopped before me; his mouth twitched as if it were a broken wing unable to give flight to words. He held a bundle of perfumed and sumptuous robes. A court official came behind him, whispered to me, “Our good king has ordered Haman to array you in the robes of royalty, and lead you through the city on the royal charger, for the boon you did him once, informing us about the plot against him.” “Haman?” I inquired, shocked. “But why?” “Because the king wants everyone to see that you have earned the very highest approbation.” Despite my best intentions, I began to laugh. So did the bureaucrat. The Agagite alone stood mirthless, stammering his orders.

I was glad to make it easy for him - dressed myself, picked out a horse and saddled him, and rode out through the city like I owned the place, while Haman scuffed ahead of me with downcast eyes. I was not so callow as to celebrate at my own funeral, however. I rode past Haman’s palace where I saw his sons, their eyes malevolent and sabers at the ready, for the thirteenth of Adar was fast approaching. The edict had not been repealed. My execution was, at best, postponed. We all would die or run as refugees, abandoning what we then called our homes. I soon had surfeit of adulation and returned the charger, changed my clothes, took up again my place beside the gates. When I got back they told me Haman had gone home already, wearing mourner’s black. I was unmoved. If Haman’s heart was heavy, so was mine; I took no pleasure in his downfall. It seemed that Haman - broken, robbed of pride - would still outlive my people.

Haman did appear before me voluntarily one time again. He walked past me to go into the castle, dressed as if he’d done it in the dark. His face was haggard, clothing all awry; he obviously still was suffering for having done me honor. His eyes were on his feet and never rose to challenge mine. He acted like he knew the jig was up. Several hours later, he came out and passed me for a final time, but was not able to address me - he was bound and being driven like a lunatic back into town. A dozen soldiers pushed him, kicked him, pulled him by his beard. I turned away.

A short time passed. A chamberlain emerged and came to me. With comic gravity, he uttered, “King Ahashueres wishes that you come before him.” “Are you kidding?” “Not at all.” “Then take me to him!” I was led through marble hallways; onyx ceilings gleamed above me; gold and green and purple stones and fabrics covered everything. I found myself before the king who sat upon his throne, entertaining the affections of the lovely queen Hadassah as she lavished him with adoration right in front of everybody. She didn’t even hear me enter. So I cleared my throat and said, “Hadassah, Mordechai is here.” She heard my voice and, startled, hopped away from him, turned red and said, “My uncle Mordechai presents himself to king Ahashueres.”

The king arose and roared with laughter. “Uncle! Is this so?” “I raised her from a child for the honor of my father, whose departed brother’s daughter stands before us dressed as queen. But I remember her when she was nothing but a squalling babe. It was in fact myself who sent her to your chamberlain so she could share that seat with you. If you have found her pleasing, you are welcome.”

He started drinking toasts. I approached my niece and, speaking quietly, inquired if the king had tried to give her any land. I knew that, as a woman, she would be restricted in her use of it. She nodded and announced, “My kinsman Mordechai is skilled in management of complex enterprises, as your queen is rather less so. Therefore I bestow on him all rights I have in Haman’s palace: let him have it as his own.” Haman’s palace! Not only was it quite a spread, but just that morning I had looked upon it as my place of execution. Everything had been upended - I now ruled my own oppressor’s house! But still the cloud of thirteen Adar hung above me. Haman might have been eliminated, but his edict bore the royal seal. Though I believed he had been killed already, it outlived him, would effect his purpose like a weapon wielded from the grave.
The king was still proposing toasts - “To Mordechai, who saved my life and found my wife and always will be welcome here” - so, whispering, I asked Hadassah, “What about the edict?” “I have asked him but he has not ruled,” she said. “Instead, he executed Haman.” “Then we have him,” I encouraged her. “Be quick - his heart is with us. Ask him to reverse the law while he is jolly, or his mood will turn and he will turn against us with it.” So she asked him, “King Ahashueres, greatest ruler under heaven, what about the killing of the Jews? For me, your Esther, won?t you lift your edict?”

An officer of court then pointed out that Haman paid in silver for the king to let him wipe us out, and to disavow the proclamation now would be a breach of contract, justifying compensation if not consequential damages. Therefore, they could not rescind the law. I made the obvious suggestion: that they could make another law that in effect negated Haman’s edict. Thus they could fulfill their legal obligation to the Agagite while still depriving him his prize. “How would such an edict read?” they asked like simpletons. So I advised them, “We could start with, ‘Let the Jews on thirteen Adar be permitted to raise arms and muster publicly for purpose of protection of their lives and property from any threat of any kind including those presented under royal seal. No punishment shall be imposed for any act performed that day by any Jew whose life or property is threatened.’”

Legal counsel for the crown approved this text; a chamberlain called scribes to copy it for all the provinces. Soon we had one hundred twenty-seven iterations, waiting for a royal seal. King Ahashueres stood, removed a ring that glittered on his little finger, held it out to me and said, “Our cousin Mordechai will hold the signet ring and turn these words to law.” I sealed all the documents and saw them off on royal posts who fully promulgated them. I spent that evening with Ahashueres and enjoyed his company. He did make mention of my stinking sackcloth; agreeably, I told him I no longer felt the need to wear it. He promptly started playing dress-up games with me, arraying me in fancy robes, displaying me in finery to crowds of cheering people who were drinking in the streets.

I took Haman’s place at court, and made innumerable friends among the rich and lordly who craved access to the king. When Adar the thirteenth approached, they told me Haman’s sons were planning a maneuver under law. Even though the king would not negate his prior edict, thus remaining technically compliant with his contract with their father, they would argue that the second edict constituted a constructive breech. They’d be allowed to make the claim in court because a son bore legal privity to bring petition for a father who was dead. However, they themselves would have to live to bring the claim. I saw to it, when our great day of self-protection came, all ten of Haman’s sons were put to death, to guarantee his claims for damages would die with them. Many Jews in Shushan had prepared for battle, and that day they slew five hundred men who hated us. They came to me to tally up the casualties, their hands still wet with blood.

When I reported it to my new boss, Hadassah?s eyes were fierce. “My liege,” she said to him, “do not forget that Haman’s sons had friends. By authorizing bloodshed, you have opened up the door to chaos. Hundreds upon hundreds lie beneath the grass tonight. Their families will want revenge. This is the crucial turning point. Will they think us vulnerable? Will they believe that they can drown their grief by shedding blood in retribution? No - they must see king Ahashueres as implacable, omnipotent - so let us stand just one more day in self-defense and all of Persia will bow down before you as supreme commander!”

“Esther, you have killed five hundred men. Can Persia stand for more to die?” Ahashueres asked ingenuously.

Her rejoinder chilled my blood: “Persia would be much improved if someone would exterminate the rats.” However, I raised no objection; Ahashueres shrugged it into law. The word went out, and all across the kingdom people tried to hide or dress like Jews so they would not be put to death for traitorous intolerance. Outside the castle gate the bodies of ten boys that Haman used to love as sons were hanging by the neck with signs, “Here are the leaders of the plot to kill the Jewish patriots. Thus befalls all those who hate us!” By the evening, we had taken seventy-five thousand men to heaven. I declared their households royal property, which pleased the king. He ruled thereafter as a man of mercy and discretion, leaving matters of defense to queen Hadassah, whom the soldiers feared, and I, old Mordechai the Jew, remained to serve the kingdom as a counselor, ensuring that our people thrived. From that day forth, our hosts embraced us as a righteous people, and our generations lived among them in prosperity and peace.

II.

Although I came to Artaxerxe’s royal court years after Esther’s elevation as our Queen, I had his ear and confidence much more than she did. My job was to conduct the kingdom’s business so our King was free to concentrate on banquets, festivals and such affairs of state. No work of any consequence was done without my knowledge and approval - either earned or bought. By the twelfth year of his reign I was in charge of nearly everything. It would be no overstatement to suggest I ruled as King in all but name. In fair view of the power he invested in me, I suggested that my primacy among the royal court be recognized by proclamation deeming that I was entitled to the deferential honors due a regent prince. As I had brought the king that day a barrel of my finest wine, he was inclined to grant my plea. The court bowed down before me; when I went out in the city, all the people showed me due respect, down on their knees - except the jews.

Their leader was a troublemaker, Mordechai, who wasted time by loitering outside the castle. He just stood and looked me in the eye. I sent a page to disabuse him; soon I found myself directly charging him with royal proclamation. Even so, this Mordechai with insolent stupidity refused to bow. He nearly made me lose composure. He knew as well as I that I was more exalted than all other men (besides the King) in provinces from Africa to India. Though I was tempted, I was not about to strike him to the ground where he belonged. My greatest power was not in my fists. Rather, I would use my offices to make him vanish from the earth. While I was at it, ever mindful of the zealot’s penchant for revenge, I vowed to wipe out all his self-important brethren too. They were following his lead like sheep - as much as asking for the slaughter. I couldn’t risk them calling him a martyr and disrupting business. Better just to cull them out. And as an added benefit, the goods and land that some among them had acquired could then be made available for distribution elsewhere.

And so, within a day or two, when I had organized my plan, I came before the King and shared with him the truth about those stiff-necked scofflaw jews, that Persia would be stronger in their absence and in fact might suffer harm from their impious posturing. The choice was obvious: they had to go. And as a favor to my sovereign, I then offered to defray ten thousand talents of the cost from my own pocket.

Eloquent and confident, I soon convinced the King to let me have my way. My proclamation in his name gave forth that on the thirteenth day of Adar all the jews should be destroyed, their spoil taken for a prey. I sealed every proclamation with the King’s own signet ring and then we opened up my latest butt of red and drank in celebration.

Once he learned about the edict, Mordechai was in abjection. He didn’t even bathe or wash his clothes. He cried and moaned, despite the fact he’d clearly brought misfortune on himself. I could not help but laugh to see it. Still he did not bow before me, but at least I could remind him daily of his coming doom.

It came to pass one day while I was waiting on the King that Esther came in unannounced. Such great audacity could well have cost her life, but thoughts like those were banished by her radiance. She seemed to burn with fervor and her beauty beggared my descriptive faculties. The King approved her audience and she demurely asked him to a banquet - and I was asked to come as well. Naturally, I acceded. I was thus the only guest at Esther’s banquet other than the King himself. I had never seen such bounty. We enjoyed the most sublime refreshment, King and Queen and I; I joined them almost as their equal. The wines were most invigorating. As we were finishing, the Queen proposed to hold another party one day later, with his royal majesty and me again the only guests to be invited. Innocently, I accepted.

I walked home and all the people bowed - except, of course, the jews, who soon would trouble me no longer. Mordechai was standing at the gates, and when I passed his glare would have been most unnerving were he not so utterly pathetic. Yet I took no pleasure in my deprecations of him. His intransigence was like a gall against the sweetness of my new ascendancy.

Once I reached my mansion I shared all that happened with my wife and children. Zeresh offered a suggestion that would bring my heart some peace: I should build a giant gallows just for Mordechai the jew, so tall that he could see it from the castle gate where he stood sulking and lamenting: fifty cubits, grander than the world had ever seen, in combination both a work of sculpture and an engine of destruction. Mordechai would choke on his conceit for having mocked me.

Working through the night, I built it. Then I went down to the Castle, greeting Moredechai in great anticipation of events to come. I went to court, but there the King was not in evidence. I asked a page where was the King, as I had come to bring petition; he replied the King was sleeping. I found a couch where I would wait for him to rise, as I had no desire to see Mordechai again without a royal warrant to dispose of him. Suddenly a courtier approached. The King, he said, demands your presence. Flattered, I repaired within. To ask for me, I thought, implies his special love. And if he loved me, he would grant me my petition - let me swat the gnat that pestered me.

I came into the royal boudoir, where the King reclined in purple sheets. He asked me how I’d undertake to honor Persia’s greatest hero. I was thrilled to hear the question. There was only one of whom he could be speaking, and it was myself. It seemed my glory shone more brightly than I even had imagined. I suggested a triumphant promenade incorporating royal livery and robes, with heralds from among the kingdom’s noblest subjects. I could almost see myself receiving tribute from the oligarchs. Then the King, in high excitement, thrust some clothes upon me and directed me to take them out to Mordechai, who’d done some favor for his Majesty. I stood bereft of speech. The jew? I asked at last in disbelief. Even so, the jolly King confirmed, unmindful of my new dismay, my heaving gut, my plan to snuff his life upon my fifty-cubit gallows.

I must comply, I thought at last. He’ll kill me if I don’t. I said farewell and went to find the man I hated. My arms and legs seemed strangely distant. Light and sound slipped past me, leaving me in silent noontime darkness. Corridors receded as if I were walking backwards; pages, looking boldly at my face, directed me I knew not where.

I found myself at last before the castle gates. Mordechai still stood there, sackcloth reeking, thick with filth; stood there, muttering and crying. I do not know how I told him. I do not know what I told him. All I know is that it happened. I removed him somehow to the royal stables, cleaned him up and got him dressed. I walked before his horse, announcing to the city, “Thus is done to those the King delights to honor.” My glory and my dreams were over. I left my nemesis where I had found him. He was laughing at my lack of power, laughing at the twist of fate that crushed my dreams like sour grapes. Home I went, where I put on the rags of mourning I had mocked. Zeresh looked afraid and said “This Mordechai and all those jews we’d planned to slaughter - they will trample down our mausoleum. I will never hold a grandson in my arms.” But ere she could be comforted a page arrived from court to tell me, “Shed your crepe - the Queen demands your presence at the feast.”

With heavy heart I donned again my courtly garb and walked to Shushan. No one bowed; the streets fell speechless at my passing. Mordechai was at the gate; he watched me, hawklike, wordlessly. I came into the court a dead man. No one even offered greeting. Everyone had known I hated Mordechai, and being seen to praise him robbed me of legitimacy here. I sighed and took my place beside the King on couches heaped with sweetmeats. Wine began to flow like water through a trough beside my head. I dipped a goblet and partook. The King was beaming, told me that his Highness had been glad to see his Mordechai enjoy at last the honors that were due and owing.

I began to sputter, choked on wine, but Esther’s entrance captured the attention of the King and offered me a moment to compose myself. I could barely notice her, though she was magnificent as always. I could hardly see beyond the shame that haloed me, but I perceived her eyes were hard and stern, so much unlike the day before, that she came near distracting me. But I was still consumed with my reversal, its irrevocable path, where next it would impel me and how quickly. My supreme desire - to see the humbling of Mordechai - had not just slipped beyond my reach, but now seemed tantamount to wishing for my own destruction. Mordechai was clearly now the favorite. I had widely advertised my wish to see him dead. The King would learn of this and then would I become an object of suspicion, stripped of power, access, prestige, forced back into barbering to feed my children.

I somehow ate my portion at the banquet, once again was full of meat and wine instead of only shame and loss. The King sat up and said that this had been the finest banquet that he ever had enjoyed, and he would grant the lovely Queen who so adored him anything her heart desired, even her own province were she so inclined. She knelt, looked hard at me, then said to him, “I ask just this: do not let Haman kill me.”

Everyone was still. It seemed that even birds and insects knew that something had just taken place that was beyond imagination, something that would so profoundly shake the world by its foundation that I tremble just to set the matter into words. King Artaxerxes stood, his penetrating eyes on me, as I sat still and tried to disappear. “Go on,” he said to Esther.

She then told him she was jewish and that she would die according to the edict he’d enacted at my urging. I’d had no idea. She had always been the very image of a Queen, so quiet, regal, and refined. The edict now placed us in opposition. There was no graceful way for me to extricate myself. By the way he stood I knew I’d never seen the King so angry. He asked me, “Would you kill our Queen and take her portion for a spoil? You have used my seal against me. Treason, regicide, and theft! I will offer you a moment to compose defenses to these charges.” And with that he stormed outside.

I turned at last to Esther, seeing in her mercy my last hope to be redeemed from ruin such as I had only wished on others. “Do not let this happen,” I implored. “I can leave and leave no trace, so far away you?ll never even hear my sons have buried me. Never did I guess that you would be affected by this edict. Had I known, of course things would be different. Let them be different now: show Haman that which Haman would show you if it were in his means to save you. I beg of you: do not be vengeful. I love you as I love our King! I am your servant if you save me!”

I had been leaning on my couch, but now I stood, my arms outstretched, to dramatize my depth of feeling. But I’d eaten far too well, and when I stood I felt lightheaded, lost my vision of the room around me, felt the floor go tipping sideways. I put out my hands and felt them fill with Esther’s flesh. I’d fallen on the Queen, and she had fallen on a couch.

The haze began to clear. With sounds of tiny bells my vision came again and I could hear the voice of Artaxerxes roaring through the hall: “Unhand the Queen!” She slid away beneath me, and I put my face into the cushions. “In my court! While I am present! At the banquet she has thrown him! When I know he plans to kill her! How shall such be recompensed?” A chamberlain came forth and told the King about my gallows. Now I felt my final minutes lapsing. I’d contrived my own undoing. “Is this so?” the King demanded of me. Face into the couch, I nodded. I had no passion left for crying. “Why the gallows?” he persisted. I was without words to tell him. He would have to learn my reasons elsewhere; my remaining breaths were much too precious to be wasted giving explanations that would only hasten my demise. In lieu of a response from me, that same vexatious chamberlain revealed to the King my plan to hang from that uplifting landmark Mordechai the jew - the same I’d led in triumph through the town the day before.

Artaxerxes looked at me, compelled me through a majesty I had not known him to possess to face him and confront his gaze. His words were hewn of stone: “Remove him thence and hang him from his folly; let his wife and children watch.”

I think I screamed as burly arms surrounded me and threw me to the ground, as ropes confined me, pulled me to my home, along the streets where yesterday the people bowed before my passage. When I fell, the dragging did not stop, and thus I learned that, just like honor, pain is only temporary. I was lifted to a platform nearly fifty cubits off the ground. A cord I had myself selected as the scratchiest and stoutest had been twisted in a noose that someone wrapped around my neck. I looked down into my garden where my children waited, watching. Then I heard my daughter screaming. She was standing in a tower; then she threw herself to death. I saw her lying still below me, in a pool of spreading quiet. I could neither hear nor feel them as they kicked me off the ledge.

III.

In the third year of my reign I mounted an official festival to celebrate the wealth and the fecundity of all six score and seven provinces I ruled as King. No expense was spared: my hand was open to each guest according to his pleasure. It came to pass that on the seventh day the conversation turned to women. I believed my Queen to be most beautiful of all, and as we sought to celebrate superlatives, we called for her to demonstrate her attributes. Let me reiterate: the King commanded his Queen Vashti to present herself at his state function. She refused me. I, her King. We had it well within our means to exercise prerogative and have her killed where she was sitting. We forebore. We published to the provinces, instead, that Vashti had been found unworthy, was no longer royalty, and nevermore should come before the King or share the hospitality of Persia. And consequently, we now sought another Queen.

A fragrant train of timid does was brought before me, one by one and night by night, until I thought my head would spin. Most had their charms as concubines, but I was looking for a Queen. And then I found one. After all too many feckless girls, a woman came to see me in my chamber. Bearing, gesture, intellect were all of most sublime refinement. And in the art of pleasure, she was pliant and resourceful. Never had I dreamed that such a Queen would grace our royal court. Esther was her name, and I myself was proud to crown her.

Some few years later, Esther ran into our chamber crying out that some among our royal guards were scheming to attack our person. Although I had forbidden her from entering without explicit invitation, we pardoned her intrusion and sent men to intercept the malefactors. I asked Esther how she knew about the plot; she told me that one Marduk Jew had gotten word to her somehow. I had his name inscribed for commendation in my Chronicles, and then returned to courtly matters.

Many years of fruitful reign ensued. A man came to my service, Haman Agagite. He was a skilled administrator who excelled in matters of procurement, finance, and the alchemy of turning labor into gold. He ran my kingdom in my name. We found ourselves promoting him above the princes at our court, whom we had made, on his request, to bow before him as if he were me.

Just a few days after this, he came before us with a trove of silver coins. His manner was most courtly and restrained, but I could see his fury just beneath that calm veneer. He offered allegations with regard to certain Jews who lived among my lands. He said these Jews were a disruption, flouted law, and should be promptly extirpated. He also gave ten thousand silver talents to my Treasury to help offset cost of wiping out these human vermin. So aptly had he served me to this point, we gave him leave to do as he saw fit to all our Jews. He then used our signet ring to seal proclamations which he sent to all our provinces in local dialect, to this effect: on such and such a date, no punishment would lie for striking down a Jew. The same efficiency he showed in managing our Kingdom’s business was employed in this endeavor.

Within a month, my Queen again burst into court without our royal invitation. Yet when I saw her, resolute and passionate, her ruby lips upon my sceptre’s jewel-encrusted tip, I gladly welcomed her. I asked her whether she required royal intervention; she in turn requested that myself and Haman join her at a banquet to be held upon the morrow. We were delighted to comply. The banquet was triumphant, and as it concluded she petitioned to reprise it on the day thereafter. I told her that we’d both be there, her King and his most favored servant.

That night, although I’d had my fill and more of wine and savories, I lay restless in my bed. My mind was racing; I could not keep shut my eyes. I called a scribe to read to me our Chronicles. To hear these calmed the blood and beckoned sleep. And as I lay there drifting off, I heard the name of Marduk Jew. I sat back up. I had been threatened by my guards, that’s right; the Queen had risked our wrath to warn me. She gave this patriotic Jew the credit after I’d dispatched my foes on her advice. What honors, I inquired, were bestowed to show our thanks to this heroic man? He has been listed, they advised me, for a commendation. Was that all? I asked. They bowed their heads a bit and shrugged. That will never do, I thought. This story needs a better ending.

I was now awake again. I stirred myself. Who’s in the court? I asked. The answer came back, Haman. Good, I thought, a trusted friend. Bring him to us, we commanded. Soon he knelt beside my bed, a giddy smile fracturing his mien. I posed to him a hypothetical: Suppose a man had earned this kingdom’s highest honor. What ceremony should we hold on his behalf? Our servant was most animated in reply. His eyes were darting all around the room; he gestured eagerly with wizened fingers. Despite his strange behavior, his idea sounded good: the honoree should wear our royal robes and crown, be set upon our horse, and he should ride in triumph through the city - and in all these things, the liverymen announcing him should be none other than the noblest among our princes. I found the sentiment most fitting, and therefore gave to Haman clothes and jewels, a royal crown and sceptre, told him that there was a man named Marduk Jew who’d saved our life and was the kingdom’s finest citizen. Since Haman was of all our court most serviceable to the crown, he was to help acclaim this Marduk in the manner he’d described.

As I was speaking, all the cheerfulness drained out of Haman. His face went ashen and his shoulders slumped. He stood before me motionlessly. I urged him to make haste. In time, he asked, his voice a whisper, Marduk Jew? I reassured him yes; he turned and left without another word.

Haman did as we instructed, leading Marduk Jew around the city as if he had won a war. Later, at the banquet, Haman seemed subdued and bitter. Esther, for her part, appeared unusually quiet too. I did not press her, thinking: let the woman be a woman. But after I’d been satiated, tasted everything and drained uncounted goblets of a wine that left me always wanting more, I leaned back upon my couch and told her, You exceed yourself, my Queen. No King is better loved than I by you. Make your petition: even half our kingdom will be yours if you would ask us for it. What can your sovereign do for you?

At this, my Esther did respond, but not the way I’d have expected: she came toward me, touched her forehead to the ground, looked round the room and back at me, and then she whispered, Please don’t let him kill me. Gravity was Esther’s watchword, and her solemn face made clear to me that this was not a joke. No one spoke or even breathed. Musicians stopped in mid-refrain; each eye and ear was on the Queen.

She continued speaking: I am Jewish. Only days from now an edict in your name will give all Persian men the right to strike me down and take my household as a spoil, without recrimination. I fear not for myself but for my family. I would not make petition but to save my King embarrassment, as it would be an obloquy upon this house were I to be beheaded as a Jew while yet a member of your court. Your servant Haman’s word is law; his law is that I soon will die. My prayer, he whom I adore, is that the law be overturned.

I stood in shock and turned to Haman, saying: Esther is a Jew, a member of that group you said was like a knife against the throat of Persia. Do you maintain that she’s a blight upon our nation? That she merits execution? Wait - do not answer me until you’ve thought it over. We will take a moment in my garden so you can reflect. I withdrew and paced among the fragrant pathways.

When I returned, I was aghast to see my Esther, my most precious Queen, thrown down upon her back beneath my now dishonored minister. Both his hands were clutching her in such a manner only husbands are entitled to employ. Her face was an averted mask of fear and shame. This was beyond my comprehension. Esther somehow threw him off and crawled back to me, badly shaken. Haman cowered as if he were a naughty schoolboy rather than the rapist of the Queen of Persia.

Now my path was clear to me. Haman, we advised him, you have gone too far. We trusted you. We find you now to be unworthy. Consider your commission as a minister revoked. Return our ring, and stand here while we chose a consequence that somehow echoes the enormity of your offense against our household, crown and Kingdom.

It was then that someone pointed out to me that Haman’s palace had a new addition: it appeared to be a slender tower standing tall on the horizon. I asked him what it was; he seemed to shrivel up and shook his head as if he had a palsy. A page approached and told me that it was a scaffold Haman planned to use to execute the Jew named Marduk. I could not believe my ears: how could Haman dream of injuring the man who’d saved me? Had he had his way, both Marduk Jew and Esther would be laid to rest. I saw him as he lay there, crumpled, unable to look back at me, as but a spineless avaricious schemer worthy only of the fate he’d planned for my beloved Queen. I ordered that the guards return the reprobate back to his gallows, that his wife and family should view him being hoisted to it’s apex and that he should hang there by the neck till dead. I then remained upon my terraces until I saw his body silhouetted still against the sky.

With that vision in my eyes, I could return to comfort Esther, knowing I had foiled Haman’s plot to overthrow my court. The hall was silent; Haman’s great transgression left us all in shock. I took my wife upon my lap and held her closely. You are safe with me, we told her. Haman can no longer hurt you. No, my liege, she murmured sadly, but I and my poor uncle Marduk Jew, our lives will end on the thirteenth as surely as your word is law. Marduk Jew? we asked her. Are you saying he’s your uncle? No, great King, he’s not, she told me - he’s my cousin, to be honest!

I had to laugh out loud - the sober mood that till that moment ruled the court evaporated as the sun burns through a cloudbank. Haman’s malefaction was behind us. Now the celebration could begin. I kissed her and embraced her firmly, gave the order: Bring him to us! Bring us Marduk Jew! I was informed he stood outside the castle gates, awaiting but my pleasure. I directed that he be admitted instantly.

Chamberlains ran out to find him. While we waited I turned to my Queen. Come to your King, I told her softly. Gracefully she hopped into my lap. Can you see Haman hanging there? we asked her, pointing out the sight. She did not turn her eyes from mine as she said yes. Her face was wreathed with smiles and I felt her heartbeat skipping. Have you ever been to Haman’s palace? I inquired. No, she said to me, I do not call on those that hate me. Wise as she is beautiful, I told the court. A thought occurred to me - that house was so palatial it befit a Queen. Queen Esther, I pronounced to all, though we rule Persia, you rule us. We therefore offer as a gift to you the house that Haman owned - may you govern it benignly as we rule our Kingdom.

With these words she grasped me in a warm embrace, but broke away when Marduk Jew came in. Upon his entry, Esther leapt from off my lap and showed him more respect than commoners expect from Queens, with downcast eyes and a submissive posture. Good my King, she said to me, may I present the greatest friend this court will ever have, my cousin Marduk Jew. With noble gesture and expression, Marduk Jew advised me of their circumstances. Esther stood beside him and announced, the house of Haman would be managed for her by her cousin - may it stand forever as a symbol of our gratitude and generosity. With this, the two embraced and everybody cheered.

But when the cheering stopped my Esther turned again to me with sorrow in her eyes. She took my hand and slowly, humbly fell before us. My dear King, my love, my husband, she implored us, now that I am reunited with my people, will you save them? Or will you offer me alone protection while my family is slaughtered? Of course We could not let that happen. Rather, I held up my scepter, told my Queen to take her feet, for we would never suffer harm to come to anyone connected to her. Thus we told her: we have given you a mansion; likewise will we give your people shelter. They will live in our most gracious magnanimity. Although our sealed edict cannot be reversed, we offer you our scribes, our signet and our post - prepare whatever writing pleases you regarding Jews, and we will see it honored throughout Persia.

Marduk Jew stepped to the fore, dictating to the scribes in rapid speech that Jews would be permitted to defend themselves with deadly force against all persons raising arms against them. With a swiftness Haman would have been hard-pressed to match, a competent and binding document was drafted, copied, sealed and conveyed to all the provinces. And in the spirit of the moment we arrayed our Marduk Jew with royal robes of white and blue and princely purple, with a crown, and brought him with us to display our glory to my people, who were already making merry in the streets.

With every passing day we grew to trust and count on Marduk Jew the more. When came the day set forth by both our edicts, for the killing and the self-defense of Jews, in Shushan City I am told five hundred men who hated Jews were slain by them, including all of Haman’s sons. This was indeed a serious engagement; I was compelled to ask my Esther how much fiercer they’d been in the provinces. Esther asked me in return permission to petition. We raised up our goblet to bestow our favor on her. Let us stand again in self-defense tomorrow, she requested in a low and steady voice. Otherwise our enemies may yet mistake restraint for mere passivity. If we failed to take action we would give them confidence to come against us with redoubled fury. In fact, she asked to utilize a gibbet in the marketplace to hang the corpses of the sons of Haman, so that everyone could see what came to those who dared oppose us.

We acceded to her wishes. When the count was taken the ensuing evening, nearly four score thousand had been slain. The Jews themselves, besotted with the blood of foes, engaged in wild revels through the night, in praise of us, their King and ruler. And Esther ruled beside us as our Queen and inspiration, and her cousin Marduk Jew served Persia as an able counselor, and all of our six-score and seven provinces gave tribute to the wise, serene, judicious rule of Jolly Monarch Artaxerxes.

IV.

My older cousin Mordechai had been my guardian since I’d been orphaned. He had raised me, housed me, kept me fed. He was a shrewd and clever man who rarely lost an argument. He spent his days outside the castle gates, where he could hear the latest news from court.

In year three of Ahashueres’ reign, Mordechai sent me to Hegai, Keeper of the Royal Women, to present myself to him as a potential Queen. I went not knowing what I would encounter, but I did my best to make a good impression. Still, my heart was in my throat - I’d barely left my childhood behind me, and now stood all alone before the gleaming castle walls. I did not know if I more feared that I would be rejected and sent back in shame to live with Mordechai, or that I would go inside and never see my home and friends again. As if to seal that fate, my cousin made me swear that I would never share my name or Jewish heritage with anybody at the castle. As I made that promise to him, I also bade farewell to everything that I had ever known.

Alone, without identity or family, I gave a pseudonym to Hegai with reluctance. Luckily, we got on well. He started to prepare me right away to see the King, but still the process took a year. I lived with several other women who were being cultivated just as I was. Every evening Hegai sent another girl to entertain the King, and every morning she returned to stay with Shaashgaz, Keeper of the Concubines. And then at last they brought me in to meet Ahashueres. Trembling, I feared the worst: the King was known for sudden rages; to offend him was to ask for death. But when I bowed before him, trying hard to do as I’d been trained, to be demure and keep my eyes cast low, to move with grace and some sense of gentility, I was most pleasantly surprised. The King, in fact, was quite an easy man to get to know. He treated me as if I were a queen already, and he seemed to like me for myself. We spent a pleasant night together. After we arose, he told the nation he had chosen me to share his throne.

Some years later I received a message from a page. My cousin Mordechai had sent a note to warn me of a plot against the King and me. I was so frightened that I ran to tell the King despite the fact I had no invitation to present myself at court. He could have had me killed for barging in, but he was glad to hear what I had learned and caught the men who’d threatened us. He asked me how I’d learned of this conspiracy; I mentioned Mordechai by name but nothing more. Although my cousin was a patriot, I could not call him what he was to me without dishonoring my vow.

Eight years passed in courtly quiet. Haman Agagite became a minister at court. He harbored dreams of great advancement that he slowly brought to full fruition as the King bestowed upon him ever greater power and authority. He was proud of his position and contrived to have the King make pureblood nobles offer him obeisance when he walked out among them. Only I, as Queen, outranked him.

Then came a day when I heard Haman cursing someone with vituperation. Mordechai refused to kneel, laughed at Haman, struck his pages. Could this be my clever cousin? Haman stomped and shook his fist. “That filthy Jew will pay!,” he bellowed. I said nothing, hoping he would just calm down, impose a flogging, and forget the whole thing happened. But I feared that somehow this was not to be.

Some days later, maidens came to me to tell me Mordechai appeared to be in mourning, wearing rent and ashen clothes. I sent him out some better-fashioned garments - these he sent back wordlessly. I dispatched Hathach, a beloved servant, to inquire what was wrong. Hathach came to me with dire news of genocide impending - all the Jews would die on 13 Adar. I was numb with shock, did not want to believe, but Hathach showed me copies of the royal orders, pointed out where it set forth that Haman paid in silver for the privilege of killing us. Mordechai now wanted me to ask the King to countermand the order. All I knew was that I had no invitation to appear before my husband, and if he so wished I’d die before I’d said a word to him. I had Hathach share these thoughts with Mordechai.

My messenger returned to chastise me on Moredechai’s behalf, assuring me the danger that I faced from him if I refrained would be far worse. I had no other option but to follow Mordechai’s advice, so I prepared myself in spirit to present petition. I asked Mordechai to fast with our community three days together, as would I; and if he never heard from me again, he’d know that I had lost my life in trying to redeem my people.

Three days passed. I sat in hunger with my maidens, thinking of the fate I’d face when I intruded on the King. Finally, lightheaded, dry, expecting death, I went before my husband, King Ahasueres. His royal guards surrounded him with axes; Haman stood behind his shoulder. I could only think that my demise would come more quickly even than that of my people - I would be the first to perish. I bowed low, and to my relieved surprise my husband raised to me his sceptre, chose to spare my life. I kissed the tip of the royal staff. Words came to me as if I were dreaming: I invited him and Haman to a banquet, went back to my chamber, prayed and tried to calm my spirit.

Despite my qualms the banquet came off nicely; I had laid out a good quantity of wine and when the King was jolly I requested of him one more favor: that he come again, with Haman, to another feast the next day on. Both the King and Haman gladly took my invitation.

I’d been surrounded by the best food in the kingdom, hadn’t eaten in three days, but was so overcome with fear I couldn’t take a bite. That night passed in meditation. Neither did I sleep nor rest, thinking only of tomorrow’s banquet, saying to my husband of twelve years, the King of Persia, “Your wife is a Jew” in front of Haman and his guards. Would he banish me, or kill me then and there, or something worse I could not yet imagine? I had kept my secret from him all that time, and was so out of practice in my people’s ways I feared that I had lost the skill to demonstrate my ancestry. My head was spinning; I let others make arrangements for a feast that had to put the one before to shame.

They did well, and once again, the party was successful. Afterwards the King and Haman lay on couches, fingers stained with wine and grease. The time to speak was nigh. If I delayed another minute, they might fall asleep and I would lose my opportunity. I had to let the truth be known. If it then stung me, I would take my consolation knowing I would not live long to rue it. I took a final bracing breath and knelt before the King. He turned a wavering eye to me and said, “Queen Esther, all I rule is yours if only you would ask. What’s your petition?” I bowed low, upraised my eyes to look at him directly; then I pleaded, “I implore my King to spare my life.”

The banquet hall fell deathly quiet - no one even dared to breathe. Ahashueres broke the silence with a laugh, but it was lonely and short-lived. His gaze went steely. “What offense have you committed?,” he inquired. “I am Jewish,” I admitted. Ahashueres nodded gravely; Haman made a choking noise below his breath. I continued deferentially: “My people have been sold as prey and bounty for ten thousand silver talents. Had your edict merely been that we would serve as bondsmen I’d have kept my secret hidden, as it were not worth the scandal to seek intervention to avoid that fate. But your great seal authorizes orders that direct the execution of my family. All my people will be put to sword, the babies and the aged too, our cherished keepsakes, homes and savings offered up as booty for our murderers. I beg your pardon, liege, but I am now obliged to shed my veil, share my heritage with you. Will you in turn protect me from the man who seeks to end my life?”

King Ahashueres asked with quiet anger, “Who would dare to harm my Queen?”
I looked at Haman; “Here he is,” I said. “He sits among us, drinks your wine, and eats with me as if he thought that I deserved to live.” Haman sat as still as he was able, looking at his feet and trying to collect his thoughts.

The King arose, cheeks dark with rage. A winecup clattered out across the floor. “Haman, do you plan to kill my Esther?? he demanded evenly. “Your majesty, I -” King Ahashueres cut him off. He bellowed, “Yes